Uproar as Government cuts university funding

Universities across the country will be forced to cut back on staff, courses and research after Lord Mandelson announced that over £500m would be slashed from their budgets.
Vice-chancellors were quick to condemn the plans, warning of ‘severe pressure’, which would negatively affect the quality of degrees.
The pre-Budget report outlined measures to remove a further £270m from the higher education pot, in addition to the £263m that had already been promised. Steve Smith, president of Universities UK said, “A reduction in the public funding per student could seriously threaten our ability to offer the high-quality experience our students deserve and expect”.
There are worries that Lord Browne, who is leading a review of higher education funding, may have no option but to lift the tuition fee cap to deal with the shortfall. Should this occur, students could have to pay over £5,000 a year.
The Government have also clamped down on over-recruitment, fining universities £3,700 for every student they admitted for 2009-10 over and above their quota. This amounts to between £59m and £81m for the higher education system as a whole.
The move was seized upon by the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats as proof that Labour have not been true to their “education, education, education” motto. David Willetts, Shadow Universities Secretary said, “We now have the bizarre situation that universities are being fined for meeting targets set by this government”. Stephen Williams of the Liberal Democrats remarked: “The Government failed to live up to its commitment to fund extra university places”.
Sally Hunt, General Secretary of the lecturers’ union UCU, warned of the cuts: “We will see teachers on the dole, students in larger classes and a higher education sector unable to contribute as much to the economy or society”.
The Government have also confirmed that a further £315m would be taken away from universities by 2013, resulting in a total of almost £1bn – 12.5 per cent of the current budget – withdrawn.
Leaders of the Russell Group of 20 leading UK universities attacked Gordon Brown, claiming: “it has taken more than 800 years to create one of the world’s greatest education systems, and it looks like it will take just six months to bring it to its knees. These huge cuts will have a devastating effect not only on students and staff, but also on our international competitiveness, national economy, and ability to recover from the recession”.
Michael Arthur, chair of the group, said: “We are an absolute cornerstone of British society; the part of the engine that drives the economy of the nation. We supply highly-skilled graduates to the knowledge economy”.
Vice-Chancellor Chris Higgins said that Durham is in a strong position to manage the higher education cuts compared with other universities. In his latest bulletin, Higgins drew attention to the fact that only a third of Durham’s income is made up from the Government grant. In addition, the pre-Budget report announced that research funding must be protected, ensuring research-intensive universities such as Durham will take a lesser share of the cuts than teaching-only institutions.
Proposals to make savings are being considered prior to a Council meeting in February, and “Once a strategy has been agreed I will, of course, communicate this to all” promised Higgins. The latest development saw a voluntary severance and early retirement scheme launched for staff, on whom the University currently spends 60 per cent of its budget.
Labour minister for higher education, David Lammy, claimed that the Russell Group’s criticisms were “misleading”. He said, “The fact is that the government’s teaching and research funding will grow between 2009-10 and 2010-11. We are minimising the effect on the frontline by asking the Higher Education Funding Council for England to look to reduce funding which will not impact on teaching”.